Thursday, August 17, 2006

I Can Breathe Again

Way back 1992 , I just entering my sophomore year of highschool. I thought that I was so cool, wearing my new purple and black jean pant/jacket set and my Hampton University t-shirt which matched the set. I had started wearing my hair long, hoping to simulate the style of Kid from the Kid and Play and the Kris Kross fad days. That copy cat hair style not with standing, I even wore my pants back wards and inside out, trying to duplicate the duo.

Little did I know that a few miles north, the battle for protection under the law by gays and lesbian was well underway, affecting my future way of living.

In 1992, Cincinnati City Council passed an ordinance that bared discrimination based on race, religion, handicapped status, gender, Appalachian origin and sexual orientation.

In 1993, voters passed Article XII, taking sexual orientation off the list of things that people could not discriminate against.I wish I would have been paying more attention to this debate when I was younger. maybe then I would not have been walking around neighborhoods two years ago, informing people about Article XII and asking for their support in repealing it.

Well that year we won, but the opposition reared its ugly head again this year. The Equal Rights Not Special Rights organization planned to petition for the Article XII to be repealed again this election year. In retalliation, the Cincinnati leg of The Human Rights Campaign geared up to oppose the opposition. I was invited to attend their rally a few weeks ago.

It was a great relief when Equal Rights Not Special Rights Organization decided NOT to submit their petitions so that opposition would be placed on the ballot. According to The Cincinnati Enqiurer, they had only obtained two signatures more than what was required to place opposition on the ballot this year. Apparently, Fidel Castro's signature (among a number of others) could not hold up informs of a court of law.